Nonviolence in the Ancient Church and Christian Obedience

There's an interesting article by Kirk MacGregor in the first digital edition of Themelios entitled "Nonviolence in the Ancient Church and Christian obedience." 

You can access the PDF by clicking on the link in the posting title above.  The article is on pages 16-28.

In the article he reviews some of the ante-Nicene Fathers and their positions - which are taken as representative of the early Christian (pre-Constantine) view.

Some interesting observations are:  until 174 AD, no Christians served in the military or assumed government office; from 174 to the Edict of Milan (313), the church treated Christians in such roles, or who had left such roles, with "great suspicion"; and the position of the church in this period was derived from a theory of nonviolence based on the preaching of Jesus (imagine that)!

Interesting reading...